Three important lessons I've learned in creating my business

Creating a business as a solo-preneur can be tricky, despite all the “how-to” offerings from the business coaching world.

Most of us who want to create a soulful business as a healer or a coach don’t come out of business school with a plan, angel investors, and a marketing team ready to make things happen. Nope. It’s more like we have a dream and we are finding our way in the dark.

That was me for sure; it’s also how my clients say they feel.

It’s actually taken me years, and I do mean years, to come to recognize what I needed to do to make this business of mine work. And it’s not that I didn’t reach out for help along the way. I did. It just wasn’t the right kind of help.

In fact, a lot of the help I got that was supposed to give me the plan for making things work actually did more harm in my mind; it took me off the path I needed to be on. But I guess there are no real wrong turns because, along the way, I learned some valuable lessons about trusting my instincts to find my own way. I’ve come to know that we each have our own blueprint for designing and evolving a business that works for us.

And that’s taught me a lot about how I can help you with your business, especially if you don’t quite resonate with the “typical” coaching models that seem to be made to fit everyone.

For a long time, I really wanted the “how-to” coaching to work for me. I wanted someone to take me under their wing and give me a workbook that I could fill in and voilà… have my business figured out. A part of me longed for some easy path. But what I realized was, by attempting to follow the advice that was built for everyone to follow, or by mimicking what I saw others do, I was actually making things way harder for myself.

I simply wasn’t following my plan… my design. And thus, the struggle.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but what I was learning was how to create a business that truly felt like me; where my work taught me about my own empowerment and way of doing what I was here to do. The “workbook” I longed for that I hoped would answer all my questions didn’t exist for me. I merely needed to go within and be with what I was afraid of claiming.

When I did that, everything shifted.

There were a few big learnings on this journey of mine, which made all the difference in the world in my bringing my business to light.

They were epic for me, and have since become the cornerstone for how I support people in finding their way with their work. Here they are…

I realized my business was teaching me about my spirituality in a way no meditation or process ever could.

I spent a lot of time in the past going within to explore what was in my way. I looked at everything that was not happening with my business as a chance to explore more of my own inner process. Every problem with my business was addressed by me tending to my own energy and spiritual learning.

Some of my clients get stuck here too. They forgo the business talk for the spiritual talk.

But what I learned was, when I stopped letting myself slip into my comfort zone of my spiritual practice, and I spent the time and energy to look at my business as a business, I created more clarity about what I was to do and how I was to do it.

My conversations changed to clarifying my thoughts about my work and what I meant when I said this or that. I focused on the nuts and bolts over the feelings I was having, and all of a sudden things changed. I was clear. I had a plan and a path that came from within and felt solid.

Sometimes I talk with people who want this kind of clarity with their business but who forgo the coaching work. They say they’d rather focus on their spiritual practice in the hopes of getting answers.

I get that. But the big thing I learned was this: by focusing on my business and showing up to in a very “business-like fashion” has been the biggest spiritual teacher of all. It’s taught me how to trust myself and stand in my power and claim what is mine to do.

I stopped comparing myself to others and what they did and found my way.

You know the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Well, it’s also the thief of empowerment.

My entire business revolves around helping you find your way because it’s been so important to me. It’s my “what matters.” I know in my bones that you have something to say, an opinion, that drives what you do. And that’s at the crux of your business. It’s your niche.

I also know that you have a particular way - as a spirit - of doing the thing you are here to do. And if you don’t follow that plan… struggle ensues.

The minute I stopped trying to do what others did and listened to my own inner plan and blueprint, things worked for me. Money flowed, people started to hear what I was saying (because I figured out what I was saying), and I felt confident in getting out there to do what I was to do.

A client of mine was chatting about our work and what she was learning and she said, “You know, this work is so not cookie-cutter. Just the opposite. It’s so tailored to me.” Yes; yes, it is because that is the only way her business will work.

Your’s too. No more comparing, please. No more mimicking, please. Find your thing and do it the way you are meant to.

I stopped being the lone wolf.

I have always been the lone wolf. If you said go right, I’d go left. And I’ve learned a hard lesson around community as I have built my business.

One of the reasons I have created a group, Bloom, is because I know we need community to both create and evolve our work; especially if what we are creating is completely new. And your business is new, even if it is coaching or healing work. It’s yours, with your unique message and way of unfolding.

And none of us can sit on our couches and come up with a plan and then go off into the world to do. It doesn’t work that way.

We need input. We need a think-tank. We need like-minded women around us to help us see our shit. We need each other.

But who we gather around us is important. For me, it’s women who also feel called to create their work from within, who don’t follow the “typical.” Women who are creating new things in new ways, but are getting out there and doing.

So my advice? Get into a group that focuses on you and your business. Look at Bloom, it may be the right group for you.

Find a networking group that connects you with women doing different things than you. And if you hate networking, check out this article I wrote, “A Healers Guide to Networking,” with some tips to make it easier.

But connect with other women in business. You’ll come to see yourself in a new light when you do, and you won’t be stuck sitting on the couch sitting in your own closed-loop feedback system. You need different energy and ideas… you need a business sisterhood.

There have been other lessons along the way for sure.

But these feel the most foundational. And if you’re feeling stuck or confused with your business, it’s at this foundational level that you want to go back to, to hit the refresh button and build the business that suits you; the business that is you.

Over to you.

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